ITNews

Did you know some ISPs (Internet Service Provider) inject advertisements into your Web queries? This and other stupid things some ISPs do are discussed in the Electronic Frontier Foundation posting Software for Keeping ISPs Honest.

The March 27th, 2008 announcement of a détente between Comcast and BitTorrent was great news. The two parties announced they will undertake a collaborative effort with one another and with the broader Internet and ISP community to more effectively address issues associated with rich media content and network capacity management. Read the details in the BitTorrent posting Comcast and BitTorrent Form Collaboration to Address Network Management, Network Architecture and Content Distribution

Unfortunately, the general problem of ISPs doing strange things to Internet traffic without telling their customers is likely to continue in the future. EFF and many other organizations are working on software to test ISPs for unusual (mis)behavior. In this detailed post, we have a round-up of the tools that are out there right now, and others that are in development…

Yep, it is likely to continue. The mighty power of greed knows no boundary. As though defending against Internet hackers, crackers, and crooks, isn’t enough, we will soon need to defend ourselves from unscrupulous ISPs.

…John

That’s what a local appliance store used to advertise, until it found itself in Chapter 11.

Chris Anderson is editor in chief of Wired magazine. His next book is FREE. It is about the idea of “free” in the old and new economies. Wired has posted an excerpt titled Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business.

I buy into the idea. Cell phone carriers make their bucks from “minutes,” so why charge for the handset? Ink Jet printer manufactures profits come from ink, so why charge for printers?

My advice to manufactures of products that use consumables is give the product away.

My advice to service providers is to stuff start up fees, and automatically upgrade existing customers to the same level of product, services, and pricing that new customers enjoy, without any fees.

Following my advice, manufactures and service providers will retain a loyal customer base longer.

Will they follow my advice? Some do and some will. Others suffer from myopia, hung up on short-term profits, and keep asking the question “Where’s the profit in that?”

…John